Editorial voices from across the country
Editorial voices from newspapers around the United States:
Working in concert, science and government can save lives. A classic case: Federally funded research has shaped policies that slashed the number of auto fatalities, even as more Americans are driving more miles every year.
But federal response to the terrible scourge of gun violence – which are now taking more American lives than car wrecks – has been a resounding silence.
Why? Politics, of course.
Just talking about anything that might remotely be construed as “gun control” is a lethal third rail for U.S. legislators. They’re so frightened by the topic that a ban on CDC-funded research into gun violence as a public health issue remains in effect, even as the death toll reaches grim new heights.
It is time for this cowardice to end. If Sunday’s slaughter at an Orlando nightclub does not weigh on congressional consciences, we fear nothing ever will.
This isn’t about violating anybody’s rights or confiscating anybody’s guns. It’s about information. It’s about choosing scientifically sound research and data over deliberate ignorance in shaping American gun policy.
What can people in West Virginia do to make the state more economically productive and diverse? How about agriculture?
A crazy idea considering the rugged terrain of much of the Mountain State, but when you look further, is it such a crazy idea after all?
The Gazette-Mail featured a group of farmers working together at a place you’d least expect it, the grounds of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank.
Last week, farmers planted the last of six five-acre plots on a stretch of level land between the Observatory’s headquarters building and the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope with potatoes. The work, done by six teams of Pocahontas County farmers using a state-owned planting machine, is part of an effort by West Virginia Department of Agriculture to encourage farmers to consider growing potatoes as a new cash crop.
Records show that in 1927, West Virginia’s best year for agricultural production, about 53,000 acres were devoted to potato production statewide, compared with less than 1,000 acres today.
And it’s not just potatoes, but apples, tomatoes, corn, squash and countless other crops grow well in West Virginia’s temperate climate and many fertile valleys.
Boosting and broadening West Virginia’s agricultural industry is a vital part of diversifying the state’s economy.
Electronic cigarettes have boomed since their introduction to the U.S. market in 2007, fueling the growth of an industry that went largely unregulated until last month. That’s when the Food and Drug Administration finally announced federal restrictions on the devices, including a ban on sales to minors and required safety reviews for products sold to adults.
But while the new rules strike a reasonable middle ground between leniency and prohibition, they don’t go far enough to reduce the appeal of e-cigarettes to young people. Nicotine products that taste like candy or fruit are a particular draw for curious teenagers, and it’s troubling, to say the least, that the FDA overlooked its own data and decided against putting limits on e-cigarette flavorings.
The rate of U.S. high school students who vape rose from 1.5 percent in 2011 to 16 percent in 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over the same period, vaping rates among middle schoolers went from 0.6 percent to 5 percent. Eighty-one percent of first-time e-cigarette users ages 12 to 17 opted for a flavored product, while 85 percent of those who continued to vape regularly chose flavorings, scientists at the FDA, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and other institutions concluded in a study published last year.
If the agency takes seriously its responsibility to regulate risks to public health, it should recognize and close this loophole.